A housing container provided with a container main body and a lid body to house substrates formed of semiconductor wafers and convey them for use in a factory process is known in the art.
The container main body has a container main body opening portion in one end portion and a tubular wall portion formed in the other closed end portion. The lid body can be removably attached to the container main body opening portion and close the container main body opening portion. By closing the container main body with the lid body, a housing space for housing substrates and the like is formed inside the housing container. The housing space is surrounded by wall portions of the container main body and an inner surface of the lid body and can house a plurality of substrates.
A front retainer is provided in a part of the lid body facing the housing space when the container main body opening portion is closed. The front retainer can support edge portions of a plurality of substrates when the container main body opening portion is closed by the lid body. In addition, a back side substrate support portion is provided in the wall portion paired with the front retainer. The back side substrate support portion can support edge portions of a plurality of substrates. The back side substrate support portion supports a plurality of substrates in cooperation with the front retainer while the container main body opening portion is closed by the lid body. As a result, a plurality of substrates are held while the neighboring substrates are arranged side by side separated at a predetermined interval (refer to Patent Documents 1 and 2).
In addition, a filter is provided in the container main body. A check valve is provided inside the filter as necessary. A gas purge operation is performed from the outside of the housing container to the housing space through the filter using an inert gas such as nitrogen or a dry air (hereinafter, referred to as a “purge gas”) with moisture being evaporated (1% or lower). The check valve prevents leakage of the gas charged in the housing space during the gas purge operation (refer to Patent Documents 3 and 4).
The filter is installed in a through-hole (access opening) provided in the container main body to install the filter. In this case, in order to seal the container main body and the filter, a filter housing (grommet) is formed of an elastic material in some cases (Patent Document 5). In addition, in order to perform the gas purge operation, it is necessary to allow a purge port of the gas purge device and the filter to abut each other. Even in this case, since the filter housing is formed of an elastic material, the filter housing in a part where the purge port abuts is elastically deformed to allow the leading edge of the purge port and the filter to abut each other when the purge port is pressed by the filter. As a result, it is possible to effectively perform the gas purge operation for the housing space of the housing container using the purge gas.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 4204302
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent No. 4201583
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent No. 5241607
Patent Document 4: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2007-533166
Patent Document 5: Japanese Patent No. 5213440